Muslim Voices – Hopes and aspirations of Muslim Australians Centre for Muslim Minorities & Islam Policy Studies
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Birthplace and AncestryThe percentage of Muslim Australians who were born in Australia is increasing at each census count and is around 38 percent.27 In the current study, 49 percent of participants who answered the question on birthplace (208 participants) were born in Australia. This was followed by 11.1 percent born in Lebanon, and 9.6 percent born in Bangladesh. Other countries represented by more than one participant were Pakistan at 3.8 percent, Turkey at 2.9 percent, India and Singapore at 2.4 percent, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia at 1.4 percent and Canada, England and Malaysia at 1 percent. Furthermore, Algeria, Bosnia, Burma, Croatia, Fiji, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Liberia, New Zealand, Oman, the Palestinian Territories, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Venezuela were all represented by one participant each.
2007), 387. Bangladesh were overrepresented as an anomaly in the method of data collection. Even though, the number of Muslims born in Australia is large, when looking at the birthplace of parents, we find that the vast majority of Australian-born Muslims are second-generation Australian: children of migrants. This is for both the Muslim Australian population generally, and for the current survey (see Table 3). This indicates a community that is in transition from being largely migrant in character, shifting over generation to becoming indigenised. Looking at the number of participants where one or both parents were born in Australia, along with self-reporting of Table 3. Top ten birthplaces of participants' parents. Maternal birthplace Paternal birthplace Country % Country % Lebanon 47.8 Lebanon 46.6 Bangladesh 6.7 Bangladesh 7.1 Australia 6.3 Turkey 5.3 Egypt 4.9 India 4.5 Pakistan 4.5 Egypt 4.1 Turkey 4.1 Australia 3.8 India 3.7 Pakistan 3.8 Afghanistan 2.2 Afghanistan 2.3 Syria 2.2 Palestine 2.3 Indonesia 1.9 Syria 2.3 Responses n=268 Responses n=266
ancestry indicates that whilst historical Muslim contact with Australia pre- dates European settlement of the continent, widespread sustained Muslim settlement did not occur until comparatively recently. Very few of the participants reported that one or both of their parents were born in Australia. Furthermore, those that did, reported a variety of ancestries not just Australian, however this could reflect the complexity and even some confusion over the definition of 
ancestry, and most non- Australian ancestries listed by this group were European. In all, nine participants (themselves all converts to Islam) reported their mothers and fathers both were born in Australia, whilst a further nine participants (of which five were converts, four raised Muslim) reported one Australian- born parent. Figure 1. Top ten responses to the question of ancestry. On the question of ancestry, respondents gave a variety of answers. Because it was possible for people to nominate more than one ancestry, the number of ancestries listed is greater than the number of individuals who responded to the question. The biggest ancestry group was Lebanese with 41.6 percent of responses. Next was Bengali at 7 percent, then Turkish at 6.2 percent (see Figure 1). Citizenship StatusThe 2007 Year Book Australia notes that almost three-quarters of people born overseas take up citizenship. Length of time spent living in Australia influences citizenship rates. Rates may also be influenced by unstable socio-economic and political conditions in the countries of origin.28 Muslim immigrants to Australia are keen to take up citizenship, although it is possible that the effect of recent changes to the citizenship laws may impact on future citizenship application rates among Muslim immigrants. There were 148 participants who indicated their migrant status in the current survey. Of these 127 (85.8 percent) had become Australian citizens, 18 were not citizens and 3 left the question of citizenship blank. Directory: sites -> default -> files -> documents -> 01 2014 documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Mobile audio/video recording systems documents -> The south australian government gazette documents -> All public acts appearing in this gazette are to be considered official, and obeyed as such documents -> Union interparlementaire inter-parliamentary union 01 2014 -> Voices Shaping the 01 2014 -> Prepared by: Kais Al‐Momani Nour Dados Marion Maddox Amanda Wise C 01 2014 -> Editors: Kerry Download 1.6 Mb. Share with your friends:
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